Board logo

Sierra upright lightening
Echidna - 7/10/08 at 07:37 PM

Has anyone ever tried to lighten a Sierra upright? I think that this upright is quite heavy and strong and it would be a good idea to "steal" some grams, preferably using FEA software.

[Edited on 7/10/08 by Echidna]

coozer - 7/10/08 at 07:58 PM

Don't do it! Not worth the thing giving up mid corner.

If you want lightness get a bespoke light upright to start with...

Echidna - 7/10/08 at 08:13 PM

Which upright would you recommend?
The Cortina uprights from Raceleda are light but very expensive and with almost zero KPI.

blakep82 - 7/10/08 at 08:18 PM

save weight elsewhere!

smart51 - 7/10/08 at 08:32 PM

Given that the upright supports the weight of a sierra cosworth V6, it is more than strong enough for a locost. It is theoretically possible to remove some weight and it still be strong enough.

The fact that you are asking for opinions on here shows that you are not confident enough in your ability to engineer weight out of the component. That being the case. I'd leave it alone.

Echidna - 7/10/08 at 08:34 PM

Unsprung weight is more important that any other weight. Also, the Sierra uprights are designed to withstand to a lot more loads than the loads of a lightweight car.

[Edited on 7/10/08 by Echidna]

Echidna - 7/10/08 at 08:37 PM

quote:
The fact that you are asking for opinions on here shows that you are not confident enough in your ability to engineer weight out of the component. That being the case. I'd leave it alone.


I am asking here to know if there are anybody who has done it before. There are a lot of ways to be sure that your solution will work with success. And i am an engineer.

smart51 - 7/10/08 at 09:00 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Echidna
I am asking here to know if there are anybody who has done it before. There are a lot of ways to be sure that your solution will work with success. And i am an engineer.


I am an engineer too and that's why I'd leave it alone. Fair enough though, If an expert showed me exactly what I could and couldn't remove then that would be fair enough.

Wadders - 7/10/08 at 09:13 PM

I reckon it would be easier and probably safer to fabricate your own uprights, that way you can dictate the geometry and to an extent the weight.

Al.

snapper - 7/10/08 at 09:17 PM

I would not remove metal from such a serious stressed component from the advise gained on a forum. Which advise is correct? get it wrong and you could die.
A carbon seat or ally panels could save as much

Ivan - 8/10/08 at 07:21 AM

I would definitely rather go the route of a properly designed and fabricated part than the unknown of fiddling with an already manufactured part as you just don't know the material properties of the Sierra part or it's design parameters.

Rorty's idea of laser cut keyed parts to improve integrity and more particularly accuracy has a lot of appeal to me.

And you can get better geometary as mentioned above.

And if you are an experienced design engineer you just might come up with something really special i.e. light, durable, strong, with the right geometery and reasonably priced.